


If Love Alone Could Heal

by marigoldtragedy



Series: To Make A Home [1]
Category: Shazam! (2019)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28303323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marigoldtragedy/pseuds/marigoldtragedy
Summary: "Rosa notices things. She doesn't think they even realize the little things themselves; like it's habit or instinct. She wishes she knew what was going on inside their heads in those moments where they seem distracted and distant. She wishes she could read their mind so that she could take care of every need that they refuse to speak or don't even realize they require. But all she can do is study their behavior and try to figure it out on her own."
Series: To Make A Home [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072997
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	If Love Alone Could Heal

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas, loves! My tenses oftentimes get so very confused so I hope this turned out decent and apologize in advance for any mess-ups. Enjoy this old boredom baby and stay safe and healthy!

Rosa notices things. She doesn't think they even realize the little things themselves; like it's habit or instinct. She wishes she knew what was going on inside their heads in those moments where they seem distracted and distant. She wishes she could read their mind so that she could take care of every need that they refuse to speak or don't even realize they require. But all she can do is study their behavior and try to figure it out on her own.  
Victor looks sad when he watches them. Once the teasing is over and their backs are turned, his face falls as if exhausted from the smile he's been wearing all day. She understands his sadness; the pain that loving them all so deeply brings. The unadulterated love that he pours into them when he greets them with open arms and jokes when they come home from school, or how he holds them close, comfortable and unconcerned with the image when they're on the couch watching movies. She knows he struggles the way she does; wishing they'd never had to have suffered the way each of them has but grateful that they've ended up here in their home. He watches them like they might disappear when he blinks and he holds them like they'll be taken away if he lets go.  
Pedro talks more in his sleep than she ever remembers him speaking while awake; oftentimes in Spanish too. His quiet demeanor doesn't bother her and it's not as if she's shocked when he speaks up. He's not closed off; just quiet. But, when she taps on the boys' bedroom door and steps in to say goodnight, only to hear them all already long asleep, she often hears the soft muttering amongst the snores. It took her a moment to realize it was him and it took her several nights to distinguish words. She's never brought it up to him; she could never bring herself to ask him what made him say such horrible things, to ask who'd told him such horrible things, but she wishes she knew. She'd have some words of her own to exchange with them. Instead, she watches him sitting silently at the table or on the couch and wonders if his head is filled with those same words that are present in his dreams or if he wakes up with no recollection of the dreams or the memories that the dreams stem from.  
Mary seems to drift off often, carried away by her thoughts. Rosa will walk into the room to find her sitting at the table, laptop open and fingers hovering over the keyboard, staring out the window, her eyes clouded over. She snaps back to the present with a soft, "hm?" when Rosa says her name, but she still seems off, like she's trying to remember something just out of reach. She'll find her in the kitchen helping Darla make dinner but accidentally letting the asparagus burn because she'd gotten lost in thought, frowning as she watched Darla with a sad and glazed over expression. She'll find her at the table with Freddy and Billy, elbow on the table and chin in her hand, staring down at where their pencils scratch at the paper but not tracking the movement, only blinking and looking back up when Billy pushes his notebook closer to her and asks her to look over his work to confirm he'd done the math problem correctly, and she nods and smiles, pushing it back to him and telling him to try the next one before seeming to close off again. Rosa wonders what's going on in her mind in those moments; where she drifts off to.  
Eugene is more compassionate than one would suspect a young man who spends most of his time yelling at his violent video game competitors would be. He attaches easily and is fiercely loyal. She sees it in the way he spends time with the others. They're all comfortable with each other. They all make time for the others, but it's the unexpected moments where Eugene takes off his headset with a yawn and initiates as if no thought needed to be put into the decision. He's the one who invites Darla out to jump rope or scratch chalk into the sidewalk out front. He's the one that runs upstairs to get one of the Superman documentaries from Freddy's room when he can sense the latter has had a rough day at school. When he's not distracted, he never seems to cease doting on his family; though he peppers them with playful insults the whole while. He occasionally invites them to join in his hobbies, to which Billy and Freddy occasionally oblige, but he's seemed to realize it isn't any of their preference of past time and has accepted that with maturity and respect that seems too natural for a boy so young. Oftentimes they do nothing but complain about the imaginative insults being shouted into the headset from the boy who'd finished his homework hours ago and is now giving them all too much of a headache to finish their own. But, when those moments of unrealized intention do happen, Rosa notices, more so than she thinks the others do, and she wishes she could read them all with the clarity that Eugene seems to.  
Darla hums. She always hums the same song, And, for as much music as they play in the Vasquez household, Rosa doesn't recognize the tune. She listens for similar sounds when listening to the radio but nothing ever strikes her. She doesn't know where it came from. But somehow Darla is always humming it; never singing it though, as if she knows the melody but can't recall the words. Rosa isn't sure if it even has words. She only ever asked Darla about it once to which Darla replied that she neither knew the name of the song nor the origination of it. It was as if she didn't even realize she was swaying to it. It was just a tune in her head. She'd shrugged then she'd gone back to crafting at the table, unbothered, leaving Rosa to wonder.  
Freddy was so quiet and still when he was alone, which really shouldn't have shocked her as it did. It's not like she'd expected him to always be muttering to himself, or humming like Darla did or tapping his fingers against his temple when he rested his head in his hand or having his leg bounce when he sat at his desk and thought over his homework. But he'd just fallen into place in their family with such ease and comfort, never feeling the need to carefully think over and choose his words, that something felt off when she noticed him so still. The first time she'd passed the boys' room and saw him sitting at the desk, lips pressed tightly together as he flipped through some book he’d checked out of the school library, she'd hurriedly knocked on the door, causing him to jump, and asked if everything was alright. He nodded and gave a quick smile and quip before returning to the page and she'd backed out of the room, watching him fall back into silence. He quickly perks up when he notices someone come into the room, but seeing him so alarmingly still and silent, almost as distant as Mary, still makes Rosa's chest squeeze when she catches him in moments of solitude.  
Billy hasn't been around long but she already notices. It's familiar behavior but she frowns at it anyway. At the way he hangs in the doorway when Victor playfully wrestles Freddy from the couch after he comments on Victor's vintage movie taste, his face etched in a frown and his eyes seeming sorrowful. At the way he flinches when they call his name; when he's not quick enough up the stairs to escape them. At the way, his jaw clenches when Darla calls him 'brother' or the way he tenses when Rosa gives his arm a gentle touch when she's moving past him. At the way he watches them all so cautiously until he notices them looking back and he hurriedly excuses himself. She frowns because she sees the longing in his eyes as he looks up when Mary chokes on her water at the dinner table because of something Eugene said and Victor's eyes are watering from how hard he's laughing, but Billy's face hardens when he catches Rosa looking at him. And it's all to be expected. Like the way he'll immediately end any interaction with any of them when he notices her smiling at him. She can't help but feel guilty in those moments when she sees the disappointment in Victor's face, who thought he was getting somewhere with the younger or the confusion in Eugene's expression as Billy rushes away from him mid-sentence. It's expected and it's familiar, but it's no less painful to see him close himself off.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for your interest! Leave some thoughts if you feel so inclined!


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